We Are Marquette

Global ties with Medical Brigade

Global connections

Medical brigades

by Jesse Lee

Global Brigades, the world’s largest student-led international development organization, will forever be linked primarily to Marquette alumna Dr. Shital Chauhun Vora, H Sci ’04, PT ’06, who co-founded the organization as a student in 2003 after participating in a service trip to Honduras.

Marquette’s Medical Brigade, a member of the global network, added two new admirers recently. Amy Lovell and Lindsay Wojciechowski strapped on backpacks in December and joined 68 Marquette students, including Lovell’s daughter, Marissa, and 14 other health care professionals on a nine-day brigade to Nicaragua. Amy is the wife of President Mike Lovell, and Lindsay is married to Men’s Basketball Coach Wojo.

They weren’t interested observers. Both contributed special skills: Amy is a former pharmacist, and Lindsay is a nurse practitioner. “I enjoyed the chance to participate in Marquette’s long-standing history of community service in a way that allowed me to get to know students and faculty,” Lindsay says. “It was a great chance to learn from the providers, who have a wealth of experience and medical knowledge.”

In a typical work day here at home, Lindsay sees approximately 20 patients. In Nicaragua, they often saw 60 or more people per day. “The trip was eye-opening, a good reminder of how fortunate we are to live in the United States,” Lindsay says.

For Amy, the experience was even more special because she shared it with her daughter, who is a senior in the College of Health Sciences. “I felt like Marissa was leading me,” Amy says, “and that was a pretty cool experience. I was impressed by our students, with how hard they worked, but also the reflections they gave on their service — seeing the Jesuit values among them and the people they served. It also was thought-provoking, in what we all take for granted every day, in the access that we have to basic necessities from health care to electricity and clean running water.”